A day at the Kent County gun board: Drugs, drink and domestic charges make agenda

Cory Olsen | The Grand Rapids PressMichigan State Police Detective Denise Bentley talks about a case while citizen appointee Dr. Wallace Duffin looks at the paperwork during a meeting of the Kent County gun board. Two of three holders lost their permits.

GRAND RAPIDS — As the Kent County gun board meets one recent morning, it’s a pretty good bet one of the three concealed pistol permit holders will be a no-show.

There is the security guard, convicted of impaired driving, who needs to keep his license to keep his job. There is the jogger, his domestic-violence conviction set aside, who simply wants to keep his license.

Then there is the guy whose gun allegedly turned up in a homicide after he handed it to a friend before a drug deal.

“We’re not going to hear from him, but I’d love for him to come in,” says Dr. Wallace Duffin, one of three members of the licensing board.

Indeed, he does not show.

The gun board — which also includes representatives of the state police and sheriff’s department — approves eligible applicants, rejects those whose criminal pasts prohibit carrying firearms, and takes action against license holders who get into trouble.

Duffin, a firearms instructor, was named to the board shortly after the law took effect 10 years ago, when Prosecutor William Forsyth opted out.

The Kent gun board used to bring in every applicant for a brief interview. The sheer volume ended that. Last year alone, 2,751 applications were received. Approval under the “shall issue” law is a certainty for 95 percent of them.

Now the board only calls in those who have been red-flagged by the prosecutor’s office, which reviews applications.

On this morning, the board is looking at a report that a Grand Rapids license holder was present at an April homicide. Sheriff’s Lt. Greg Parolini reads a police report that tells of the man’s involvement.

FOR EXAMPLE

Everyday reasons for carrying

Unlike many gun boards, Ottawa County’s still requires every concealed pistol license applicant to appear in person. The board schedules about three applicants every five minutes during the three-hour review. Here are a few of the many who attended in May.

BRAD HAAN, 27, of West OliveFirearm: Owns both handguns and rifles Reason for a permit: “If you’re transporting guns and you get stopped by police you could get in a big hassle answering questions. With a permit, you tell them you have a one, show it to them, say if you have any guns with you, and you’re on your way.”

CRAIG DEVRIES, 58, of Port SheldonFirearm: .45-caliber ACPReason for a permit: DeVries, a blueberry farmer, wants to carry a firearm without having to put it away when he leaves his tractor for a truck. “The classes make you more aware of what is a situation (requiring a weapon) and what isn’t. It allows you to determine if it’s something to intervene in or it’s not. The guys that take the classes are the ones you’re not going to have trouble with in the first place.”

AMANDA MARSH, 32, of ZeelandFirearm: Glock 9 mm Reason for a permit: “I used to be afraid of guns. I was against having them in our home. But my husband took me to a shooting range and I slowly over came my fears. … The guns are put away out of the reach of the children and they know they are not allowed to touch them. When they get old enough, we’ll have them take the gun safety course.”

WAYNE NOLAND, 42, of HudsonvilleFirearm: Smith & Wesson .500 Magnum and a .44 Magnum.Reason for a permit: “I don’t need a gun permit for protection. I go hunting with handguns, so I need it to carry my guns and when I’m out hunting. When I was learning to hunt as a kid, I didn’t like to use rifles so my dad taught me to hunt with a handgun.”

RICHARD ROBARHN, 57, of Jenison Firearm: .357 Magnum Reason for a permit: “I hunt in northern Michigan and carry the magnum for protection from bears. You come across them once in a while when hunting and the gun makes me feel safer.”

The 23-year-old suspect’s name is mentioned repeatedly. It is written on a white board outside the third-floor conference room. It is on agendas held by board members. But this is the last opportunity the public will have to learn it.

A quirk of the law makes these sessions open to anyone, but license holders’ identities cannot be disclosed by officials. If someone requests minutes of the meeting or a transcript of its recording, any trace of the name will be removed from the record.

Parolini says police reports show the man, who has not been charged, drove a buddy to a drug deal. He handed the gun to the friend.

“During the drug deal, shots are exchanged, first by the buddy, and then by our holder,” the detective says. “One person killed. (The license holder) got the gun back and started shooting again at the other person. So, we obviously have some issues here.”

The suspect told police he was driving around smoking marijuana, Parolini says.

Duffin asks if Parolini and state police detective Denise Bentley want to suspend the man’s license. They have no choice, Bentley says.

“He’s not been convicted or charged, but it’s a horrendous incident,” she says.

The board votes unanimously to suspend. Other decisions this day aren’t so clear-cut.

An armored truck driver was convicted of impaired driving in January 2009. Wyoming District Judge Pablo Cortes wrote a letter saying he was OK with the driver keeping his concealed license. A month later, the gun board agreed.

That is, until the license’s five-year expiration neared and the man applied for renewal. Then his conviction triggered red flags.

He shouldn’t have gotten his license back after his impaired driving conviction.

“It’s a three-year disqualification,” county attorney Sangeeta Ghosh says. The man, 31, is not eligible to re-apply until January.

“For two years now, my CPL has been valid,” he tells the panel. He says he has not been in any other trouble. He lost his armored-car job for impaired driving. His security job requires him to have a concealed license.

COMPLETE SERIES

“Apparently we had a reason,” Duffin says. “If the mistake was ours, we should correct it and make some amends to the guy. … We put his employment in jeopardy.”

After Ghosh investigates further, Duffin says, “Clearly, we screwed up. We should not have reinstated back then. But we did. So it’s on us then.” He asks if there is any way to renew the license.

Bentley and Parolini sympathize, but said renewing the license would only compound the earlier mistake.

“OWI and leaving the scene?” Parolini says. “Obviously it should’ve never have been given back to you. We can’t go outside the law that says there is a three-year waiting period. It would’ve been revoked for three years. It was given back. We don’t know why.”

“Neither do I,” the man says.

When it is suggested he reapply in January, he replies, “In seven months, it’s a different profession.”

Later he declines to comment to The Press. He has to meet with an attorney to appeal the ruling.

Also present this day is a man who pleaded guilty Nov. 8 to domestic violence in a deal that wiped out the conviction after one month on probation. He says he got into an argument with a running partner.

“I admitted I grabbed her wrist at one point, but it was just to say, ‘Hey, settle down.’ We had already talked it out (when police arrived). The gun was never an issue.”

Bentley is wary. Domestic violence is grounds for revocation.

“It says ‘domestic assault,’” she says. “If you grab me, it would not be a domestic. It’d be simple assault.”

The 49-year-old man says he was breaking off the running relationship, nothing more.

“I don’t even think I have had a traffic ticket in the last 20 years,” he says. “This has been blown way out of proportion.”

Once the board determines the charge has been dismissed, Bentley has no problem reinstating the license. “We have no choice,” she says.

The man gets his license back. Once he leaves, Duffin says, “I suspect there’s a lesson to be learned here. I’m not sure exactly what the lesson is.”